Earth Day reminds us that we need to take care of the planet. But being the Earth’s caretaker puts a mental burden on us that is difficult to handle.
A young person struggles with climate anxiety. (Illustration by News Decoder)
This article was adapted from the third episode of “EYES on Climate“, a podcast created as part of Empowering Youth through Environmental Storytelling (EYES), a News Decoder project in partnership with The Climate Academy in Brussels. In this episode, host Amina McCauley talks to clinical psychologist Laura Carter Robinson about the anxiety many people feel about climate change and how we can effectively work through it.
You can find the full episode embedded in the article below. EYES is halfway through a two-year project to create a series of classroom modules that educators across the globe can use to teach students to understand and communicate climate change through science and journalism.
News Decoder is piloting this curriculum in schools across the world — from Belgium and the Netherlands to Malaysia and Colombia. EYES is co-funded by The European Union. Let us know if you would like to become a pilot school or if you would like to know more about News Decoder’s global citizenship and media literacy programs for high schools.
If you’re feeling anxious about climate change, you’re not alone. According to a study published in the science journal The Lancet, 84% of youth globally say they are at least moderately worried about climate change. Fifty-nine percent are very or extremely worried.
Climate anxiety isn’t like normal anxiety. If you’re afraid of the future because of climate change, your fear is rooted in reality. But this fear might be isolating you, might be making you feel so hopeless that you become apathetic, inactive. It might be stopping you from working with others to take action.
“The feelings are so big that they can keep people from acting,” said Laura Carter Robinson, a clinical psychologist who works at the intersections of psychology, climate change and the natural world.
Because Robinson helps people with climate anxiety we invited her onto our climate education podcast, “EYES on Climate“. We wanted to learn what strategies she gives her clients.
First, Robinson said, we have to sit with the emotions that are brought up by climate distress. If we’re acting out of fear, the action is more of a frantic push, devoid of mindful strategy, which can cause a downward spiral.
“It’s coming from a place that almost builds anxiety sometimes,” she said.
Feelings of individual guilt
Many young people feel guilty that they’re participating in the society that is creating these problems. Robinson said that this needs to be worked through. Often, the guilt is misguided.
“It’s important to recognise that we are all embedded in a system where it is so hard to not do those things,” she said. “It’s important for people to understand they can make changes, but that if they are still doing some things related to [burning fossil fuels], it’s because it’s kind of impossible to get away from a lot of it.”
The guilt you feel for your individual lifestyle choices can in itself cause stress and is largely based on the fossil fuel industry’s campaign to take the focus of their emissions.
Listen to the interview with Dr. Laura Carter Robinson
Consider that BP, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, popularised the term “carbon footprint”, which places the blame on individuals and their daily choices.
Anger also comes up a lot, Robinson said, particularly for young people.
“They’re angry this is happening,” she said. “They’re angry they have to deal with it. They’re angry that this is their world that they’re inheriting and that all totally makes sense. It’s not fair to burden young people with this. It’s really important that they have support and action by adults in all kinds of ways throughout society.”
Working through our feelings
Then there’s sadness and grief.
“We have of course loss of life in many climate disasters,” Robinson said. “That’s really significant. And loss of habitat, loss of biodiversity, loss even of traditions and ways of life for a lot of people, often in Indigenous cultures and others as well.”
One of the most simple and effective ways we can deal with climate distress is by talking about it, and by giving young people the opportunity and space to do so.
“One of the hardest things is that people often feel really isolated,” Robinson said. “And so talking about it with someone, whether that’s a therapist or whether that’s in groups … just anywhere you can find to talk about climate emotions with people who get it. Just talk about climate change and your feelings about it.”
Having a space to discuss climate change and their feelings associated with it can help a young person feel understood. Talking about feelings in general, known as “affect labelling”, can help reduce the activity of the amygdala — the part of the brain most associated with fear and emotions — in stressful times.
Unplug yourself.
Unlimited access to the internet does allow young people to connect with like-minded people and engage in pro-environmental efforts, but the amount of information being consumed can also be harmful.
Climate change is often framed in the media as an impending environmental catastrophe, which studies say may contribute to this sense of despair and helplessness, which can lead to young people feeling apathetic and being inactive.
Robinson said that while you don’t need to completely cut out reading the news and using social media, it is important to assess the role of media consumption in your life. She suggested setting a short period of time every day where you connect to the media, then try your best to refrain from scrolling and looking at your phone for the rest of the day.
“Instead, look outside at nature, at the world we’re actually a part of instead of what we’re getting filtered through the media,” she said.
For some people, looking at social media around climate is a way of connecting with a community that cares about climate, so it can still be a useful tool for many people.
“Our nervous systems can get really hijacked by anxiety,” Robinson said. “We know that when mindfulness is a trait for people, when it really becomes integrated into who they are, that it does help. It’s associated with less climate anxiety in general.”
Take in the nature around you.
Studies show that mindfulness can improve symptoms of anxiety and depression. Robinson says this is partly due to it allowing us to be present with whatever feelings come up, that it helps us to stay centred throughout the distress.
It can be as simple as taking a mindful walk in a nearby forest or green space. While of course forests are helpful in absorbing carbon and reducing emissions, they can also help us reduce stress. Some studies have shown that spending more than 20 minutes in a forest — noticing the smells, sights and sounds — can reduce the stress hormone cortisol.
Robinson said that one of the more powerful things you can do is to band together with others.
“Joining together with other people who care and who can have these conversations with you and then want to do something along with you is really powerful,” she said. “We’re social animals as humans, and we need other people and we really need each other now during all of this. And it’s so important to be building those relationships if we don’t have them.”
It is possible that climate anxiety can increase when young people learn about climate change and the information is just thrown out there, Robinson said, and the opportunity to talk about emotions should be incorporated into learning.
“It is different than learning math, or learning a language,” she said. “It’s loaded with all kinds of threat. Kids need to know what to do with that because there is going to be an emotional response.”
Take climate action.
It has also been shown that action can be an “antidote” for climate anxiety and that education centred around action empowers youth, when providing ways of engaging with the crisis collectively.
Teachers can then help students connect their feelings with actions, whether that be in encouraging their participation in green school projects or on a broader level in their communities.
“That action, it helps, it really gives people a sense of agency and they know that they are making a difference,” Robinson said.
We need to come together, she said, not just to help us feel better, but to find solutions. “I really think that our connection, our systemic issues that we have, are so profound and they really push us away from each other in so many ways.”
Our societies often favour consumption over connection, she said. “As human beings we developed in the context of nature, evolutionarily,” she said. “We were immersed. We were part of nature, and we are still, but we have increasingly grown apart from that relationship.”
That changed over time. Now people spend little time in nature even though it’s often all around them.
“From an eco-psychological sort of point of view, we’re embedded in that system, and we’re harming that system because of that separation that’s developed,” she said.
Questions to consider:
1. What is “climate anxiety”?
2. What is the connection between climate anxiety and education?
3. How do you handle the stresses that you are under?
Amina McCauley is News Decoder’s climate education program manager. Born in Australia and living in Denmark, Amina has a background in reporting, media analysis and teaching and a particular interest in the relationship between humans, their environment and the media.